MONTPELIER, St James — Even as his family mourns the fiery death of his six-month-old sister Nyemerah Graham, 17-year-old Trevino Thompson — who pulled four other siblings to safety — is being hailed a hero. His quick thinking saved them when the family’s four-room house at Guinep Tree Lane in Montpelier, St James, was gutted by a fast-moving fire early Tuesday morning. Thompson got burnt during the blaze.

“Him take out all of the rest of them and go back for the baby. It’s that time him get the burn,” the teenager’s stepfather Sheldon Graham told the Jamaica Observer near the ruins of what used to be their home.

The extent of Thompson’s injuries is unclear but up to early afternoon Tuesday he was being treated at hospital.

Graham, who said the fire forced him to exit from another section of the house, told the Observer he feverishly worked with the teenager to get his children out of the burning building.

“[Thompson] try go through the window but by the time him reach where the baby was, the fire start burn him in the back, so him have to just turn around. Him jump back through the window and mi ketch him,” Graham explained.

The house, a four-room dwelling, burned quickly, leaving no further chance to rescue the toddler whose remains were found by firefighters called to the scene. The child was found in the living room, her tiny body almost burned beyond recognition.

Her mother, Nymshie Edmond-Graham, was inconsolable. She learned of her daughter’s death while at hospital seeking medical treatment for her 12-year-old who was recently diagnosed with diabetes. She had taken him to Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) over the weekend for treatment and had not seen her six-month-old during that time.

“A two day mi no hold mi baby and she gone,” the grieving mother wailed.

Neighbours were just as traumatised as they tried to process the tragic affair that has rocked their quiet community. Residents said the house was razed to the ground within less than 20 minutes.

“My boyfriend was sleeping and said he heard the pop-pop sounds, and him get up and look and the whole place light up,” Sheldon Graham’s aunt and neighbour Kayon White related.

Distraught, she said this is just the latest challenge for the family. They were trying to rebuild after Hurricane Melissa destroyed their house last October.

Investigators from the Jamaica Fire Brigade and the Jamaica Constabulary Force have started their work to determine the cause of the blaze.

Firefighters comb the scene after fire destroyed a four-room house in Guinep Tree Lane, Montpelier in St James Tuesday, leaving a six-month-old dead.

An investigator from the Jamaica Fire Brigade assesses the scene of Tuesday morning’s fire that gutted a four-room house and left a six-month-old girl dead.